Thermal images of electrical devices, mechanical devices and structures can be useful for analyzing the performance thereof, both during design and development, for example, for design optimization purposes, and during operational service, for example, for inspection and maintenance purposes. These thermal images may be captured, displayed, stored and transferred to a computer workstation by an infrared (IR) camera, according to methods known to those skilled in the art. Some examples of such a camera, are the Ti25 available from Fluke Corporation, and the Fluke Ti 55 Thermal Imager.
A displayed thermal image of an object, or scene, which is typically presented on a display of the computer workstation in two dimensions, is composed of corrected digital image data that has been mapped and scaled to an array of pixels, wherein a color, or a gray-scale value, of each pixel corresponds to a detected temperature, or temperature range, of the corresponding portion of the object. Although such an image can indicate to a viewer, the general location of high or low temperature zones, and can give an idea of temperature gradients over the object, the amount of information presented by such an image may be difficult for the viewer to process for accurate and efficient analysis. Thus there is a need for graphical user interfaces that facilitate more rapid and accurate analysis methods.
Due to the limitations imposed on patent application Figures, with respect to color, the images and representations of FIGS. 2A-3C and 5, although originally coded with color values from the spectrum of visible light, are shown in a grayscale format, which is a function of grayscale reproduction. It should be noted that the scope of the present invention is not limited to any particular type of scale of qualitative values for coding quantitative values, nor to a particular resolution thereof.